To invoke the WintextCom diary, if it is not already being displayed, press Control+D in the directory. To switch back to the directory list, press Control+Tab.

WintextCom is shipped with diary templates for each year. The first time you invoke the diary, the current year's template is displayed, showing a title then a list of calendar dates for each month of the year, such as bank holidays and the start and end of British summertime.

The diary works exactly like the standard directory. Use the arrow keys to move up and down, type text to search, and use the same commands to make and modify entries. You can insert your own dates at appropriate locations.

The WintextCom Diary facility uses the WintextCom Diary folder.

This folder is used to create and store diary files corresponding to your date and time entries when using WintextCom's diary feature.

The WintextCom Diary enables you to enter, modify and delete diary items using the directory interface. You can move items to the end, into the records paragraph, to keep a permanent record of your activities, if required. Open the WintextCom Diary by pressing Control+D. If you continue to permanently record or delete past entries throughout the year, your diary always opens with the next due date/time at the top. You can open the diary in an editor by pressing Control+Shift+ENTER when it is open in WintextCom to remove a block of text from the top if you started using this feature later in the year and wish to remove past calendar items.

When entering a new date, you can type a question mark ("?") to complete a partial date to find out the day of the week on which it occurs. The contents of the name field of the store dialogue is immediately replaced by the completed date. For example, if you type:

"24 5"

while entering a new date during 2008, the Name filed will be updated to:

"24 may sat 2008".

This feature is most useful for making new diary entries with complete dates, but because the text is only processed as far as the point where you typed a question mark, it is simple to keep entering dates for which you would like to know the day. For example:

"6 4 1942"

is replaced by:

"6 apr mon 1942",

then just press Escape to cancel making a new entry. Typing a question mark in an empty field replaces it by the current date.

When entering dates and times in new items, you can use your preferred format and as simple and quick a typing method as you please, but no colons, strokes or other illegal filename characters. However, since colons are a natural part of time format, WintextCom automatically converts them to hyphens when the entry is saved so you can use them without generating errors. This is illustrated in the calendar entries in the default diary templates, where only spaces and no punctuation is used, and no capitalisation; the years are included there for convenience, but are not necessary. You can include commas on the line, and you should include the whole entry, date/time and description, in the name field, separating the description from the date and time by a comma; this allows you to modify the description at a later date without losing access to a corresponding notes file, if one has been created. If you do need to modify the date/time and move the entry to a new diary location due to a date change, you can insert the new information at the start of the entry and separate it from the existing date/time by an underscore ("_").

You can optionally use the information field to enter category text for the item, such as whether it is a business or private engagement. When you save the item, WintextCom places a period (".") before any text in the information field and follows it by an identity string of characters. These elements are included whether you enter a category or not. The identity string is based on the date and time when the new entry is created. This pastern enables you to easily search your diary for items in a particular category, just by typing a period followed by the category text and pressing F3 to move to the next occurrence. Searching can be useful to find items of a particular type in the records section.

A file is only created if you need more space to describe an entry than is convenient in the WintextCom list, or if you wish to make corresponding notes. Just left click or press ENTER on the appropriate diary entry line to create a ".txt" file in this folder ("diary" in the WintextCom installation folder) and open it in the directory editor. The file is given a ".txt" extension so that it can easily be accessed with other software if convenient. The filename consists of your date entry, up to, but not including, any comma in the name field, followed by the text in the information field and the extension. Any characters in the name field before an underscore, and the underscore itself, are ignored. Subsequently clicking or pressing ENTER on the line will open the file again.

You can also create diary entries that open files in other folders with appropriate applications instead of using a notes file in the WintextCom Diary folder. Diary entries can be set up as ordinary WintextCom menu items by including text in the type field of the store dialogue, which is then included in the entry separated from the rest of the name field by a semicolon. If there is text in the item type field of a diary entry, clicking the line or pressing ENTER executes an application shortcut in the information field.

Page url: http://wtcmanual.wintextware.com/index.html?ug_diary.htm

The WintextCom Diary is simple to use but very effective and readily available at all times